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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Holidays 2017

This is a very delayed post, but I still want to do it because I want to remind myself, again and again, of how lucky I am to have wonderful people to call family.

My husband and kids are indeed God's greatest blessing to me. They pretty much are the reason for the smile on my face, the spring in my step, twinkle in my eye... you get it!!!

Christmas 2017

This is the second year that we are celebrating Christmas without my father-in-law. I think C's family is still trying to find a new tradition without him. My MIL likes to go on staycations during the holidays, maybe the new environment keeps her mind pre-occupied.

C's whole family checked-in Seda in BGC for several days. The girls kept their Ah-ma company for 4 dyas, while C and I just chose to stay there on Christmas Eve. To be honest, our home is really our sanctuary, and while we enjoy the occasional staycation, nothing compares to the comfort that staying- in gives us.

Since the girls shared a room with my MIL, the fave son gets to stay in our room like an only child.

His height belies his heart.

Still a kid at heart. Makulit pa din talaga! With a lot of energy to spare.

We just had a simple Christmas Eve dinner at Crystal Jade. I was underwhelmed with the food and found it overpriced. It wasn't that it was not good, because most of the dishes actually were, but it did not offer value for money. I am posting photos of the dishes that I found good below. I suggested to my husband that the next time we do a holiday staycation, we should just set up the living and dining area in my MIL's suite and order food trays.

This simple dish of a single piece of abalone with broccoli florets is very good,

but quite pricey at almost a thousand.

The asado at Crystal Jade is constantly good. One of our faves.

My husband pre-ordered all the food served that day. I liked this one, too.

It's a unique take on the skin of the Peking Duck.

On Christmas Day, my side of the family had a party in my mom's hometown in Pampanga. So even if my kids were initially reluctant to attend without us, they did out of obedience - in full 70s costume and they brought along the right party attitude. C and I had to stay behind kase my MIL had a fracture and so we offered to stay with her to keep her company.

Sharing with you some photos of the party.

The line up of the nominees for best in costume. Nasali pa si Achi.

The Day After Christmas

My youngest sister got a year-end promotion, and she wanted to share her blessing with the rest of the family so she booked rooms for all of us at Shangrila Fort. One room for each family, with my parents getting a suite! Wow! You can be sure everyone prayed that she gets a promoted every year. Hahaha!

The spacious living area

The dining area, which we used for all the board games my brother brought along

The master bedroom of my parents' suite

I'm sure all the grandkids were so excited to be together and nagsi-talunan na sa kama

the powder room for visitors.. meaning us. She got rooms for each of the families, but we ended up staying in the living room in our parents' suite most of the time to play board games.

this is our room, and my son quickly invited my nephew over to play games

the view outside our room

Bongga! May pa-dinner pa sa Samba.

Samba is the Peruvian food outlet of Shangri-la Fort.

Because of our very busy holiday sked, the kids were not even able to open almost all of their Christmas gifts. I think we were able to open all of the gifts after New Year na.

I purchased their santa sacks early 2017 kahit na matatanda na sila because they get a lot of gifts from friends and the gifts literally spill out to the floor, we don't have space to walk na, we trip on the gifts sometimes. Kaya ito, the santa sacks keep the gifts together in a neat looking bundle. Ang cute din tingnan, di ba?

New Year's 2017

For the kids and I, we've always enjoyed our tradition of spending time in the kitchen on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. It's a bit tiring, but being together, cooking while listening to Christmas songs really sets the mood for us. Planning our menu is one of the highlights of the holidays. Na e-excite talaga kami mag branistorm on where to order our food trays and what appetizers to make.

It's not an extravagant meal, but we do try to make sure our holiday table is filled with food that we love and conversations to cherish.

We almost were not able to get reservations for this one. Fully booked na sila.

My husband had to pull some strings to be able to get 2 orders home.

Wild Mushroom Pilaf from my kitchen

Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Baked Brie with Truffled Mushroom and the crostini from my kitchenI share the recipe for my Baked Brie here.This is our all-time fave appetizer and I make sure to serve it only during the holidays to make it all the more special. Yung hahanap-hanapin nila.

Holiday meals will not be complete if my husband doesn't take out his bottles of single malt. Look below for his selection of our NYE single malt flight. Pretty impressive.

For New Year's Day lunch, we met up with my in-laws and had lunch at Uno Restaurant. It was the only place that would accept late reservations for new Year's Day lunch. We don't mind naman because the food was good, even if the place is a bit cramped. Importante busog.:) hahaha!

The Phenomenal Woman

Thanks for dropping by! The Phenomenal Mama is a blog about my experiences as a stay-at-home mom as I try to be purposeful & intentional in taking care of my family & home. I am only phenomenal in how I allow God to use my imperfections to do his phenomenally perfect work.